Construction is under way by SARES•REGIS Group of Irvine, Calif., on three Class-A industrial buildings totaling more than 120,000 square feet in Anaheim, Calif. The project, Canyon Point, is registered with the United States Green Building Council and will be the first speculative green industrial buildings in Orange County.

The project continues SARES•REGIS Group’s commitment to develop energy-efficient real estate projects and will be built to meet environmentally sustainable specifications needed for certification by the USGBC.

There are several architectural features in this project in addition to its prime location that should assure its success, company officials said. It is in a local market that has the lowest industrial vacancy rate and the largest industrial base in Orange County. But what will put the project in a class by itself is it will be constructed to earn the USGBC’s rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

“Green and sustainable commercial buildings are what companies want. Green buildings cost less to operate, and companies want to be recognized as socially responsible by their employees and customers,” said John Hagestad, managing director of SARES•REGIS Group.

Completion is planned by mid-2010. The 6.3-acre site is on the southeast corner of Miraloma Avenue and Miller Street. It is in Anaheim’s “Canyon” district, a 2,600-acre redevelopment area where the city “has spent millions on infrastructure improvements. The city’s redevelopment agency has put all the pieces in place to encourage and support new development,” Hagestad said.

Additionally, the site is in the heart of the high-demand North Orange County industrial market, which has a vacancy rate of 6.1 percent, according to CoStar Group’s industrial real estate year-end survey for Orange County.

The project will consist of one 57,593-square-foot building and two smaller buildings of 31,744 and 32,554 square feet. Each building includes 4,705 square feet of two-story executive office space. The larger building will have a 130-foot private truck court, six dock-high bays and one grade-level door. The smaller buildings will have three dock-high bays and will share a secured 130-foot truck court. All truck courts will be paved with concrete instead of asphalt, reducing the heat-island effect.

Brad Bierbaum of CB Richard Ellis, who is marketing the project for SRG, said the building sizes are perfect for the market. Buildings in the 30,000 to 50,000-square-foot range are the first to be absorbed, he said.

Additionally, the project is in “business friendly” Anaheim, which offers green building incentives and has its own electric utility. Consequently, power costs are about 20 percent less than from Southern California Edison, Bierbaum said. “If you’re doing business in north county, Anaheim is where you want to be,” he said.

Moreover, key architectural features in the project will give it a leg up on competing buildings, he said.

The project’s 30-foot clear height will attract many users with modern racking systems and forklifts. Bierbaum estimates that 85 percent of the approximately 113 million square feet of industrial buildings in the north county market have less than 24 feet of clear height, the state of the art in the late 1980s.

In contrast to the more common “truck wells” for loading unloading goods and materials, the buildings’ many dock-high loading positions are important features that make transferring goods in and out of trucks less cumbersome.

Instead of asphalt, the truck courts will be paved with concrete, which is “more durable and doesn’t get as hot,” he said.

Because of the many planned energy-saving features, the buildings’ operation costs will yield big savings to the owners or tenants.

Bierbaum also said the project is close to a commuter train station served by Metrolink, which recently increased the number of inbound morning Inland Empire trains from eight to 30.

SARES•REGIS Group is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and is one of the leading developers and managers of commercial and residential real estate in the western United States. Currently, the company has more than 4 million square feet of commercial industrial in the entitlement process and 1,962 residential units in pre-construction and development. SARES•REGIS Group has a combined portfolio of property and fee-based assets under management valued at more than $4 billion, including 15 million square feet of commercial and industrial space and 16,180 rental apartments. Since its inception the company has acquired or developed approximately 44 million square feet of commercial properties and 19,000 multifamily and residential housing units.

SARES•REGIS Group also is a leader in green and sustainable development and management of commercial and multifamily projects. The company is the largest privately held developer of green apartment units in Southern California and is building the first sustainable speculative industrial project in Orange County. Since 2002, SARES•REGIS Group has sequestered more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide gas.